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Thriller
Michael Jackson's Thriller.
Directed by	John Landis
Produced by	George Folsey Jr.
Written by	John Landis Michael Jackson
Starring	Michael Jackson Ola Ray
Distributed by	Sony Records
Release date(s)	December 2, 1983
Running time	13:43
Language	English
Budget	US$800,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is a 14-minute music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis. It is often considered to be the best music video of all time, and redefined the concept of music videos; hence it is acclaimed in its genre. It was the most expensive video of its time, costing US$800,000 — the equivalent of 1.4 million in 2007 U.S. dollars, until Michael beat his own record with sister Janet for the US$7,000,000 video for "Scream". It also held the record for the world's longest music video, ceding that to Jackson's 35 minute, long-form music video, "Ghosts", in 1996.

"Thriller" was less a conventional video and more a full-fledged short subject or mini-film; a horror film spoof featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. The music was re-edited to match the video, with the verses being sung one after the other followed by the ending rap, then the main dance sequence (filmed on Union Pacific Avenue, Los Angeles) to an instrumental loop, and finally the memorable finish: the choruses in a "big dance number" climactic scene. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a zombie and a werewolf (although makeup artist Rick Baker referred to it as a "cat monster" in the "Making of Thriller" documentary); familiar territory for Landis, who had directed An American Werewolf in London two years earlier. Co-starring with Jackson was former Playboy centerfold Ola Ray. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters (who had worked with the singer on his prior hit "Beat It"), with significant contributions by Jackson. The video also contains incidental music by film music composer Elmer Bernstein, who had previously also worked with Landis on An American Werewolf in London. The video (like the song) contains a spoken word performance by Vincent Price, horror film veteran. Rick Baker assisted in prosthetics and makeup for the production.

Jackson, at the time a Jehovah's Witness, added a disclaimer to the start of the video, saying:

“

Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult.

”

To qualify for an Academy Award, "Thriller" was debuted at a special theatrical screening, along with the 1940 animated motion picture Fantasia. It was met enthusiastically by the audience with a standing ovation, and most patrons left without staying for the main feature.^{[citation needed]}The video is still regarded as the most successful music video of all time, selling more than 900,000 units[1].

Contents 1 Plot 2 Making Michael Jackson's Thriller 3 References and parodies in pop culture 3.1 Cinema 3.2 TV 3.3 Other music videos 3.4 Video games 3.5 Miscellaneous 4 Trivia 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Michael and his date (Ola Ray) run out of gas in a dark, wooded area. They walk off into the forest, and Michael asks her if she would like to go steady. She accepts and he gives her a ring. He warns her, however, that he is "not like other guys". A full moon appears, and Michael begins convulsing - transforming into a horrifying werewolf. His date shrieks and runs away, but the werewolf catches up, knocking her down and begins lunging at her with its claws.

The scene cuts away to a movie theater (the Palace Theatre in Hollywood) where Michael and his date - along with a repulsed audience - are actually watching this scene unfold in a movie called Thriller (by Vincent Price). Michael smiles but his date is frightened, and tells him she's leaving. Michael catches up to her, exclaiming "It's only a movie!" Some debate follows over whether or not she was scared by the scene; she denies it, but Michael disagrees.

Michael and his date then walk down a foggy street, and he teases her with the opening verses of "Thriller". They pass a possessed graveyard, where corpses suddenly begin to rise from their graves, as Vincent Price recites a verse. Michael and his date then find themselves surrounded by the zombies, and suddenly, Michael becomes a zombie himself. Michael and the undead perform an elaborate song and dance number together, frightening his girlfriend to the point where she runs for cover.

The girl is chased into an abandoned house, where the zombies and Michael slowly approach her. Right before they reach her, she wakes up and realizes that it was all a dream. As Michael asks "What's the problem?", he offers to take her home, but as the video ends Michael glances back at the camera, grins, and reveals his monster yellow eyes (accompanied by Vincent Price offering one last haunting laugh).

After the credits, when they concurrently show the zombies dancing again, the disclaimer humorously states, "Any similarity to actual events or persons living, dead, (or undead) is purely coincidental." Landis' An American Werewolf in London likewise offered this disclaimer.

Released in tandem with the video was an hour-long documentary providing candid glimpses behind the scenes of the production. Called Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, it, too, was shown heavily on MTV for a time and was the top-selling home-video release of all time at one point, with more than 9 million copies sold.

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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In a brief scene from the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy's character Axel Foley is seen walking past two grown men, each dressed in imitation versions of Jackson's "Thriller" video outfit. His response, used in trailers for the film, was the trademark Murphy laugh.

• In the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), performers in the Von Steuben Day Parade scene are said to be reenacting steps from Thriller but some have described this as coincidence.

• The spoof film The Silence of the Hams features an image by image parody dance of the video, however, in this film, the Michael Jackson impersonator is carried away by the zombies.

• The impromptu dance sequence in the director's cut of Shaolin Soccer features dance steps and similar camera angles from the Thriller music video.

• A Thriller spoof was done by the German comedian Otto Waalkes in his first motion picture Otto - Der Film. However, in place of zombies he used multiple actors resembling the German folk singer Heino, and in place of the original lines a variation of Heino's song Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuß ("Black-Brown is the Hazel Nut").

• In the 1998 film The Wedding Singer there is a scene where the character Sammy is dressed as Michael Jackson in Thriller. This scene is also used in the musical adaption of the movie. During the song "Single", which appears in the same scene, Sammy makes several references to Jackson in general, such as when he says that "no chick will ever moonwalk on your heart."

• In the 2004 film 13 Going on 30, Jennifer Garner's character Jenna Rink starts an impromptu dance to Thriller following the zombies' movements.

• The movie Return of the Living Dead Part II briefly shows a zombie dressed up like Michael's character. This zombie spins around when electrocuted.

• A parody of the video is an Easter egg on the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within DVD, which features the computer-generated cast of the film.

• The Axe Gangs dance near the beginning of the movie Kung Fu Hustle loosely resembles the dance.

• There is a Halloween episode of South Park ("Pink Eye") in which Chef turns into a zombie while wearing Jackson's Thriller outfit and singing a parody of the song while other zombies dance like in the clip.

• In another episode of "South Park" ("The Jeffersons"), Michael Jackson (going by the alias Martin Jefferson) is wearing his red Thriller outfit as his plastic surgeries begin to break down, causing him to resemble his zombie form seen in the video.

• In an episode of the original series of The Lenny Henry Show, Lenny Henry parodied the music video with a song titled "Thinner". The clip was a parody of Jackson's battle with anorexia nervosa at the time.

• In the The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror III", Bart and Lisa try to resurrect their dead cat Snowball, but by mistake resurrect hundreds of corpses who crawl out of their graves. Bart uses a magic spell to raise these zombies and wears Michael Jackson's Thriller album on his head.

• In the first episode of season three of ReBoot, Enzo is rebooted into a zombie. He wears the same clothes as Michael Jackson does in the video. Also, he performs some of Michael Jackson's signature dance moves such as the moonwalk when the user shoots at him.

• In the TV cartoon series Animaniacs, the character Buttons the dog is chasing after Mindy, when he suddenly ends up in a graveyard where zombies roam. Buttons wears the outfit similar to Michael's character and even dances (almost in the same manner) to lure the zombies away from Mindy.

• In the 6teen episode "Dude of the Living Dead", one of the zombies is wearing the same outfit and look of Michael Jackson in this video.

• In The Chappelle Show, Dave Chappelle played in a sketch where he was a prospective juror in the Michael Jackson trials and when he was asked if he believes Jackson is guilty or not, he says no, simply reasoning that Jackson is innocent because "he made Thriller."

• In the Disney Channel TV show The Replacements, Riley Daring is shown doing dance steps to Thriller, with a bass-line also similar. The character named Buzz also pops up and laughs like the video at the end of the credits.

• In the Cartoon Network cartoon The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, a brain-hungry meteor tells Billy to get people's brains, he gets an outfit like Jackson's and everyone (except Grim & Mandy) do so steps from the Thriller video.

• In the The WB (now The CW) show Blue Collar TV in an episode where the "Fat Family" flashes back to where the husband is in a dance-off with a man who wants his girlfriend (who is his wife later in the flashback) and they use the dance from the Thriller video.

• At the end of a skit of The Man Show, Adam Carolla and Drew Pinsky discuss the aftermath of attempted self-masturbation (the skit dealt with what would happen if Adam cloned himself) with his clone. After being asked about which Adam exploded (The rule of cloning in the skit was "Don't have sex with your clone") and having Drew leave the house to masturbate the skit ends with Adam having the same eyes as Jackson had at the ending of the video. The skit also included the testimony seen at the start of Thriller except at the end of the skit and with Adam's name used.

• On "American Duos", the season premiere episode for the second season of the Psych TV series, series star Dulé Hill is dressed as Michael Jackson and doing choreography from the "Thriller" video despite the fact that, along with series star James Roday, who is dressed as Roland Orzabal from 80s group, Tears for Fears, they're actually singing "Shout". The episode was coincidentally directed by Thriller video director, John Landis.

• In an episode of Robot Chicken, the cast and crew, who had been killed in the previous season, returned as zombies and chased after their killer, one of the shows producers Matthew Senreich. His cell phone rang and his ringtone was Thriller, causing all of the Zombies, including Seth Green, the 600,000,000 peso man, and the nerd to do the dance moves from the video, only to stop and continue chasing him when the ring stopped.

• In an episode of My Wife and Kids, Jay realizes that her make up is cadaver makeup, and her face becomes temporarily deformed. When Michael runs to her aid, he says she would be good in the Thriller video. He humorously performs a few dance moves from the video, to the audience's amusement.

• In an episode of Total Drama Island, the chef leads the kids in a rigorous version of the Thriller dance, going non-stop for hours.

• In the Halloween special of Australian quiz show Spicks and Specks, the final question during the Final Countdown round is "A point to anyone who can do the Thriller dance". Panellist Dave Hughes got up and did his own version of the dance.

• In the music video for the Gorillaz' song "Clint Eastwood", when the zombie gorillas rise up and chase Murdoc, they can be seen performing moves from the Thriller video.

• The intro to Avid Merrion's "Proper Crimbo" spoofs Thriller's intro. Jackson is played by comedian Leigh Francis, and his girlfriend is played, bizarrely, by TV presenter Matthew Wright. Instead of turning into a werewolf, Jackson's head turns successively into a cat, pig, elephant, and rabbit. He then turns into John Leslie, truly terrifying Wright.

• In Alien Ant Farm's video for "Smooth Criminal", itself a parody of virtually every Michael Jackson video ever, men are shown parodying some dance moves from Thriller as well as the man at the end turning round and having similair "wolf eyes" to Jackson's.

• In 2006, Beatfreakz released a parody of the video for their re-release of the song "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell, guest sung by Michael and Jermaine Jackson which included a Michael Jackson 'mini-me' dancing with the undead.

• The final shot of "Weird Al" Yankovic's video "Eat It" (a parody of Jackson's prior hit, "Beat It") has the comedian turning his head around to reveal he has "wolf eyes".

• In Telemundo, a music video called "Informal's Raro Malo", was a Spanish parody of the Thriller video, but ends 6 minutes and 31 seconds sooner. They used white Spanish actors instead of the original cast. The video can be seen here.

• Also in 2006, Bob Sinclar and Cutee B's music video for the hit single "Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)" featured a parody of Thriller danced by children. This is just one of several parodies of famous pop and rock acts featured in this music video.

• Another 2006 music video which parodied Thriller at one point was Gnarls Barkley's music video for "Smiley Faces". In the video it is suggested that Gnarls Barkley was present in 1983 as two of four zombies in Jackson's Thriller music video.

• In the music video for "Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy, Pete Wentz can be seen doing moves from the Thriller music video during his dance.

• The 2001 Fatboy Slim music video for "Weapon of Choice" features Christopher Walken dancing while using some of the zombie moves from Thriller.

• The Aquabats' video for "Fashion Zombies" parodies the zombie dances as well as the spoken poem in the middle of Thriller.

• In the music video for the Misfits' song "Scream", the ending features a similar twist in that the zombie stalking the nurse turns out to be the singer from the band, who turns back into a zombie in the final seconds. This parallels Jackson reverting to normal after the climax, then appearing again with flashing green eyes.

• The German band Wise Guys performed a Thriller parody on German television in 2007. They did the song in their a cappella style with German lyrics. Instead of Thriller, they sung about the German poet Schiller.

• In an episode of Family Guy, Peter and Cleveland are at a dance and Cleveland's outfit looks like Michael Jackson's outfit.

• An Indian parody of Thriller was created, complete with Michael Jackson's outfit and dance moves from the original video, except performed faster.[2] The music video was part of a film named Donga, starring Chiranjeevi.

• In the video game Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, at one point in the first level (a graveyard) there is a dance floor, on which a vampire dressed in a red outfit similar to Jackson's appears. Suddenly, some zombies pop up from the ground and begin to dance along with the vampire before attacking the player. The music in this phase sounds like a short sample from the song.

• In "The Sims 2 Nightlife", a possible dance is similar to Thriller's choreography.

• In Michael Jackson's own video game (only available on Sega) Moonwalker, one of the levels is when Michael has to defeat zombies in order to get to the next level similar to his own video clip Thriller.

• Many of the games in THQ's WWE Smackdown! feature steps from Thriller as optional moves for created characters.

• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, female Undead characters using the /dance command were formerly able to do several Thriller dance moves. It is unknown why this was removed from the game.

• In the MMORPG Guild Wars, female Necromancers using the /dance command copy exact moves from Jackson from when he was a zombie. Male Paragons perform the dance from Jackson.

• In the MMORPG RuneScape, players can earn an emote called "Zombie Dance" from a random event. This dance uses some of the moves from this video. Players can also earn parts of a zombie costume, if one examines the boots of this costume, the description says "Thrilling".

• In Rayman Raving Rabbids, Rayman and the Rabbids can be seen doing a dance similar to Thriller after some of the music games.

• In the video game, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse, when the zombies stand still long enough, they do a part of the dance from Thriller.

• In the game Final Fantasy VIII, during Edea's Parade, the masked dancers are performing the dance moves from Thriller.

• In the game The Typing of the Dead, during the Credits sequence, the player can type out the developers' names as they scroll down. Doing so will cause zombies to break out of containers and start to dance, a la Thriller.

• An issue of the Marvel comic book Dazzler was devoted to an homage/parody of the making of Jackson's video. The plot centered on the title character (a dancer by trade) winning an audition to work on a horror-themed music video starring an entertainer obviously patterned on the singer.

• Former WWE superstar Brian Christopher would often use Thriller choreography while walking to the ring as apart of his hip-hop gimmick while with the tag-team Too Cool.

• Johnny and the Dead, a book by Terry Pratchett (and its television and stage adaptations) make occasional references to the music video.

• This song was part of DTV Monster Hits except that it ends after two minutes and fifty seconds.

• In the off-off Broadway musical Evil Dead: The Musical, the cast does a take off of the zombie dance in the "Do the Necronomicon" number.

• A story development in the webcomic The Adventures of Dr. McNinja parodies the video, featuring Benjamin Franklin as Michael Jackson and Dr. McNinja as his date.

• In the webcomic Order of the Stick there is a reference to Jackson's video, specifically speaking of the zombies.

• Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb had paid homage to Thriller and the moonwalk with his touchdown celebrations in 2003 and 2004.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Right before Michael and the girl leave the theatre, the announcer on the screen utters the line "See you next Wednesday", a line featured in most John Landis films.

• When Michael sings the chorus with the zombies, his face appears completely normal as if he wasn't a zombie yet, which he said on the making of the video was because the mask was so uncomfortable to wear.

• Grape jelly was used for the gory effects.

• In October 2007, Much More Music placed "Thriller" as number 2 of the Top 40 Most Memorable Music Videos on "Listed".

• List of most expensive music videos

• Thriller (1983) (V) at the Internet Movie Database
• The original music video for "Thriller" on YouTube

• Thriller video by inmates in the Filipinnes

v • d • e Michael Jackson
Album discography	Got to Be There · Ben · Music and Me · Forever, Michael · Off the Wall · Thriller · Bad · Dangerous · HIStory · Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix · Invincible · Thriller 25 · TBA
Solo tours	Bad World Tour · Dangerous World Tour · HIStory World Tour
Filmography	The Wiz · Thriller · Captain EO · Moonwalker · Ghosts
See also	Singles discography · Controversies · Awards · Records and achievements · Tours